WithPatrick Crowfrom Washington, D.C.The Clinton administration has proposed a plan to allow nations to trade allowances for greenhouse gas emissions as part of an effort to stave off purported global warming.
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The plan was submitted in advance of international negotiations to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
A number of nations will offer proposals at a meeting that opens Mar. 3 in Bonn. Treaty participants are expected to issue a final plan at a summit next December in Kyoto.
Oil firms fear the Kyoto protocol will require deep cuts in the use of fossil fuels and thus are worried that the climate change talks are a serious threat to the industry (OGJ, Nov. 18, 1996, p. 24).
Banking and trading
The administration proposed industrialized nations be allocated quotas for emissions of greenhouse gases. It did not propose specific levels for the quotas.
Under the U.S. plan, if nations did not exceed their quotas, they could "bank" their emissions as credits or sell them to other countries. To meet their own quotas, they could finance projects that reduce emissions in developing nations.
The proposal would not set emissions limits for developing countries, but those nations would have to take energy efficiency actions such as requiring low-energy light bulbs and increased insulation.
The developing nations also would have to prepare annual inventories of their emissions and report on measures they have introduced to cut emissions.
Undersecretary of State Tim Wirth stressed that any international program to combat global warming had to be workable and had to have achievable targets.
He said the U.S. proposal would give countries the flexibility to live within emissions budgets and take advantage of technological advances.
Earlier, the administration had proposed making 2010 the first deadline to meet emissions targets, explaining that action before then was not realistic. It also proposed that nations exceeding emissions allowances could "borrow" against future reductions, if they are willing to pay a penalty for the right.
Reactions
Environmental groups objected to the emissions borrowing plan, saying that would only pass the global warming problem to the next generation.
They also were disappointed in the administration's latest proposals, saying they were loophole-laden and would do too little, too slowly.
But the Global Climate Coalition, which represents companies and industry associations, adopted a wait-and-see attitude.
John Shlaes, GCC executive director, said, "The administration has already committed itself to targets and timetables, although it has not yet completed its own analysis of the economic impacts of current climate change policy.
"The administration has indicated in the past that it will not cost anything to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Let's wait and see what the analysis says. It is important that we get it right before we agree to anything that will commit the U.S. to a course of action well into the 21st century."
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